My Farm visit experience - May, 2015 - Part 2

A train journey helps you consolidate your thoughts.....

A farm visit would always begin with one thing in mind and end with doing something else. This is akin to visiting a mall where you go to buy something important and end up shopping a bagful of garbage, omitting the main item.

Repairing the Green Shade House was a top priority.  What i saw was that one of the corner supporting pole was seen fallen down and hence the entire tent had collapsed.

Added to that due to recent rains, the raised mud floor had developed pot holes making the floor

Green shade collapsed due to wind / Rain

uneven. Erosion of mud was seen on the periphery. The green shade net was not useful to start a nursery. This is very important for me to plan the future.  Therefore started mending the same with the team.

Doing is not easy as thinking and saying......

It was very hot and bring Sun.  This time we wanted to anchor the poles firmly and  time some cross poles so that structural stability is achieve

A strong foundation for one corner pole

Pole in place. An empty fertiliser
bag was worn like socks under
ground to extend life of pole.

d.  Earlier the poles were standing on their own with very weak links between them.  Luckily we had earlier purchased some extra casurina poles at 500/- per stick.

We did a re-plan.  The roof should be made flat and tight so that it is more laminar without sagging when there is heavy wind.  The edges of net were rolled to strengthen and stretch them to make it tout.  While structure has to be strong, the aesthetics was also achieved by creating even border around.

The ends of the net to be rolled onto the poles and the tied.

or tying the poles, we used rope, nylon ribbon and thin wire as appropriate.  First the skeletal structure was tied with all the available poles. Then the net was spread and tied.

Finally done and ready.  The mud has to be spread properly.

At the end, the job looked neat.  As of today (23.05.2015) the nursary bags are in place and they had been filled with help of women workers.  Brinjal, tomato and chilly seeds have been put 2 to 3 per bag totalling around 100 bags only.  Wanted to see if we can maintain them with available resources.

There is a small gap in the bottom. That can be either covered or left open depending on need. The idea is if there is hot wind we can cover otherwise some amount of wind is necessary for nursary plants.

Once the tent was finished, the climate inside became so pleasant.

This green shade will be my important experimental ground.  Planning to load the space with more plants in coming days....